Need a drink? There is an app for that ...

Cara Houchen
@seeninthecity

MY lovely other half, John, was back home this weekend for the first time in seven weeks, so we decided to celebrate with a marathon pub crawl starting in Newcastle and ending back in Sunderland.

For the first time in my 10 years in the North East, I finally ventured into Tiger Tiger.

I tried once before about seven years ago, but apparently its dress code does not allow Playboy bunnies and as there were 20 of us in identical bunny outfits, we were quickly escorted off the premises.

My latest attempt was much more successful.

We were lured inside by the offer of half-price draught and it seems so was half the city.

It’s a lot bigger inside than I expected and it was the perfect place to start a lazy Sunday afternoon drinking session.

En route to the Metro, John decided he wanted to try out his Wetherspoon app, this became an underlying theme as we decided to see how many we could visit in one day.

Our first pit stop was the Five Swans in St Mary’s Place, but the atmosphere was definitely lacking in here so we hot-footed it to Grainger Street and popped into The Mile Castle.

It’s enormous in there. Set on four floors, we found a seat on the top floor, one because it was busy, and two because I wanted a good nosey at every floor.

John filled his boots with 2-4-1 Desperados while I played catch-up with vodka and lemonades.

Even though Wetherspoon pubs are not my first choice, I’ve got to admit it is the best way to stretch your cash on a day out.

Heading back to Sunderland and still following the app, we grabbed a booth in the Cooper Rose.

I forced John to join me and share a bottle of Rosé – not very manly I know – but his mates joined us and soon rescued him and got him on the JD and coke.

His mates refused to accompany him to a karaoke bar, so I was left on my own to endure John’s secret passion.

What started as a relaxing and enjoyable day ended with bad karaoke in the busiest bar in Sunderland.

It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but we were like sardines in a tin inside Sinatra’s, so it must be doing something right.

John refused to head home until he had sang John Legends’s Ordinary People – it was definitely an interesting and slightly out of tune end to an enjoyable day out.